Yes, Desmond, the enigma we met two weeks ago both out in the flashback stadium and down inside the current-day hatch finally blown open by the castaways of ABC's Lost. That rival network hit may be the thing that trips up Kristen Bell's clever teen detective before any of her Neptune hometown murder hurdles.

UPN has made the peculiar decision to move its ratings-challenged critical fave to Wednesday nights, directly opposite ABC's Nielsen steamroller. Veronica is more than up to the competitive task, as this week's season opener proves by setting up a series of intriguing situations -- from high school drug-test fixing, to a dead body found in the vicinity of spoiled rich kid Logan (Jason Dohring), to dangerous new town and school rivalries, to a class field trip that turns unexpectedly explosive.

But who'll know that Veronica remains vital if they don't get the chance to even sample her sharp new sagas? (Luckily, UPN is scheduling weekend encores in most markets, including South Florida. Catch the season-premiere replay at 11 tonight on WTVX-Ch. 34 or 11 p.m. Sunday on WBFS-Ch. 33.)

The second-season opener, scripted by series creator Rob Thomas, starts with "normal" as its watchword, in both the episode title and its crisp dialogue. Having been through last season's near-death kidnap experience, not to mention unraveling the date-rape puzzle and clarifying her murky parentage, Veronica has now given up the private-eye game at which her loving dad (Enrico Colantoni) has become a national star, after writing a best seller about last season's killing of Veronica's best friend by Logan's movie-star father. Veronica's started hostessing at a local restaurant instead -- until her friends' strangely failed drug tests "pull me back in," as Veronica quotes in a handy filmland reference. The incident also manages to nicely revive the class wars with which last season launched in her affluent seaside California hamlet.

Nothing is ever forgotten on Veronica Mars, which can be a hurdle to newly arrived viewers. (Best bet: Check out the first-season DVD set to be released Oct. 11.) But the show's deep-rooted fidelity will certainly delight devotees, who'll find plenty of allusions to last season's maze of mysteries involving Veronica's murdered pal Lilly, her gangland friend Weevil (Francis Capra), her not-half-brother ex-squeeze Duncan (Teddy Dunn), her ever-erratic new boy toy Logan, best-bud Wallace (Percy Daggs III) and his dad-dating mom, and even Veronica's runaway mother.

The new season also brings fresh characters to the Neptune social scene, including a politically ambitious sports tycoon (Steve Guttenberg), his big baseball star (Jeffrey Sams) and, among the parental units, an altogether-too-hot trophy wife (Charisma Carpenter). They're stitched into the intricate tapestry as the season-premiere script moves back and forth in time, taking us through the summer's shifting events and into Veronica's senior school year. While Veronica dodges a major bullet (or two), she also seems to see a ghost.

No, it's not Desmond. But it might as well be. UPN isn't likely to gain much traction for Veronica on Wednesdays at 9 opposite another thinking-person's show with a spellbinding serial plotline, even with the weekend encores as a crutch. Lost and Veronica are too alike in their smarts and their savvy storytelling mastery. This new time slot is likely to haunt our heroine as much as the deaths she tries to solve. Let's hope one of them isn't soon her own show's.